Comment:

I make roleplaying games.

Specifically, I make unconventional games to run with my friends, usually just one-shot scenarios. Some have been good. Some have been great! Some, I will not mention.

Distraction is an issue in all games. Zoa is, inherently, distracting. Even if standing perfectly still, its hair still moves and reflects and refracts light. Even if keeping perfectly silent, the omnipresent offer of switching to a much more engaging pastime still lingers.

There are many ways to deal with distractions during game. I like to eliminate them pre-emptively, whenever possible.

I admit, though, I do like the idea of rewards for good roleplaying. I think I'd rather like receiving oral sex for slaying a dragon, especially if my partner and I remain in character throughout. For that matter, I'd like a tasty cookie every time I quaff a potion, and I'd like to be given twenty bucks when I open a treasure chest full of fantasy gold. That seems nice.

But, of course, the whole idea of roleplaying is that one uses one's imagination. I would argue that if one needs the incentive of a cookie to quaff a potion, one is not adequately imagining.

The intersection of game and intimacy, is of course, potentially problematic. The phrase "I rolled a twenty so now you have to-" is not great. It can work, I think, if one views the game itself as a sort of domme, one that can be negotiated with and safeworded as necessary.

I don't know where I'm going with this.

...

Hey, did you know I made an adults-only erotic card game? It's called Brothel, and you can buy a nice glossy copy here, or download the PDFs and print and cut out a deck by pledging as little as $1/month to my Patreon. Brothel is a game that, yes, involves actual physical intimacy, so it's not ideal for this pandemic-laden world as of the moment I'm writing this paragraph, but presumably getting together and touching each other will come back into vogue someday.

Transcript:

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0171 - 2167/07/06/16:19- sidewalk.
Zoa: So what do you enjoy, Caleb?
CP: I... uh... I do fantasy roleplaying games.
CP: Not like a video game or anything, it's... it's like a kind of talk therapy I do in a group. It's... it's pretend, but it's important.
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Zoa: Rad stuff. Getting together with your buds, slayin' demons, bein' an elf warlock or whatever.
CP: Actually, we only play humans. And it's all remote, we don't... we don't ever get in the same physical space together. That... that might be bad.
Zoa: Ah, damn, there goes my pitch to sit in as pre-, mid-, and post-game entertainment.
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CP: F-for... oral sex?
Zoa: Sure, like, every time you slay a dragon or whatever, that could be a reward. Like I said, I'm very reasonably priced.
CP: I... I don't think our gamerunner would like that very much, we already have enough trouble with... uh... getting distracted.
LC: I can confirm, Zoa tends to be pretty distracting, whether it's performing oral or not.
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Zoa: Hey, if I can keep my yap shut for the duration of a Gu Gu JaxxonFive episode or a philosophy class, I think I can keep it shut while Caleb and the trauma squad pretend their way through a level five dungeon.
LC: And if you actually talked out of your yap, that'd be relevant.
Zoa: Who said anything about talking?
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